Four faculty members—molecular biologist Catherine Dulac, constitutional scholar Noah Feldman, economic historian Claudia Goldin, and theoretical physicist Cumrun Vafa—were named University Professors, Harvard’s highest distinction, on Wednesday. These appointments take immediate effect.
“Catherine, Claudia, Noah, and Cumrun are outstanding colleagues and superb University citizens,” said President Alan M. Garber in a news announcement. “They represent not only the potential of individual scholars but also the timelessness of our mission to expand the frontiers of knowledge for the benefit of humanity. It is an honor to acknowledge their achievements.”
Catherine Dulac, the Samuel W. Morris University Professor and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, has been appointed the Xander University Professor. She is a leading molecular biologist and geneticist who studies the neural processes behind instinctive social behaviors, such as parental care and responses to sickness and social isolation. Dulac received a 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for her research examining the neural circuitry that regulates parenting behavior in males and females. She succeeds Douglas Melton, who remains a Catalyst professor at Harvard.
Noah Feldman, the Frankfurter professor of law, chair of the Society of Fellows, and founding director of the Julis-Rabinowitz program on Jewish and Israeli law, has been named the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor. His work draws on history, philosophy, literature, and religious studies to understand how people form and sustain communities that align with their values. Feldman also co-chaired Harvard’s Institutional Voice Working Group that, in 2024, issued a report advising the University against making statements on political and social issues that do not directly affect its work.
Claudia Goldin, the Lee professor of economics and the Lee and Ezpeleta professor of arts and sciences, has been appointed the Samuel W. Morris University Professor, succeeding Dulac. An economic historian, she has investigated the gender wage gap, providing the first comprehensive history of American women’s labor market outcomes. In 2023, Goldin was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for this pioneering work.
Cumrun Vafa, the Hollis professor of mathematics and natural philosophy and chair of the physics department, has been named the Timken University Professor. Through his research in theoretical physics, Vafa has developed topological string theory and uncovered holographic aspects of black holes, among other achievements, receiving a Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for his work in 2017.
